Hut site, Carrowhubbuck, Co. Sligo
Co. Sligo |
Settlement Sites
On the clifftops at Carrowhubbuck in County Sligo, a low circular ring of sod-covered stones sits quietly within the remains of a much larger enclosure.
It is easy to miss, measuring only three to four metres across, and it gives almost nothing away about who made it or when they lived here. Yet its very modesty is part of what makes it worth attention.
The structure is one of at least three confirmed hut sites, and possibly a fourth, clustered within a cliff-edge fort, a type of coastal promontory enclosure that used the natural defence of a cliff face as part of its boundary, supplemented by constructed banks or walls on the landward sides. This particular hut sits in the south-western quadrant of that fort. The circular form, defined by a low bank rather than upstanding walling, is characteristic of early settlement remains found across Ireland, where generations of weather and agricultural activity have reduced what were once substantial structures to little more than a faint ridge in the ground. The grouping of multiple huts within a single fortified enclosure suggests the site was home to a small community rather than a single household, though the record does not extend to dates or the identity of its occupants.